To Which He Answered, He Had Seen Him Two
Days Before.
The king then asked, What he had then done to him?
He said
he had only visited him. But the king pressed to know what reverence and
fashion he had carried towards the prince. Asaph Khan then saw that the
king knew what had passed. He therefore said, That he had gone to wait
upon the prince, in all reverence and affection, to offer his service,
but that the prince refused him admittance into the apartment;
wherefore, as he was entrusted with his safety, he thought it both
necessary for him to see the prince, and discourteous in him to deny,
and had therefore pressed in. On this, the king quickly asked, "And when
you were in, what did you say and do?" Asaph Khan stood confounded, and
confessed that he did not make any reverence. Whereupon, the king told
him roundly, "That he would make his proud heart know the prince as his
eldest and beloved heir, and his prince and lord; and, if he ever heard
again of the smallest disrespect or want of duty in his behaviour
towards the prince, he would command his son to trample him under his
feet." He added, that he loved his son Prince Churrum, yet did not
entrust his eldest son Cuserou among them for his ruin and destruction.
The 20th I received a new warrant for carriages, which procured me eight
camels, but such poor ones as were quite unable to suffice for our
baggage, and I was therefore under the necessity of purchasing the rest.
The 22d I removed to my tents. The 23d and 24th I waited for the
merchants; and on the latter of these days I had a letter from Ispahan,
saying that my letters had been dispatched for Aleppo, and that we were
expected in Persia, but on condition that we seconded the wishes of Shah
Abbas, by diverting the sale of his silks from Turkey. My letters added,
that the general of the Turks lay with a mighty army at Argerone,
[Arzerom,] six days march short of Tauris, as if uncertain whether to
attack that city, or to enter Gurgestan and Gilan, the provinces in
which silk is produced, so as to win that by conquest which was refused
in the way of trade. To guard against both attempts, Shah Abbas was
encamped at Salmas, whence he could march either way as might be
required. But, it was farther said, if the armies did not come to battle
in two months, the approach of winter, and the wants attendant on such
numerous bodies of men, would constrain both to quit the field. It is
thought the Persians will not adventure a battle, though 180,000 strong,
as, being light, and unencumbered with cannon or baggage, they are
fitted for rapid marches, and can harass the Turkish army with perpetual
skirmishes and assaults on all sides, hovering round about, and wasting
them, without hazard to themselves.
Sec.6. Sir Thomas Roe follows the Progress of the Court, and describes the
King's Leskar, and some Places through which he passed; with instances
of the King's Superstition and Drunkenness, and some curious Incidents
respecting a Present.
The 25th of November I removed four cosses from Agimere, but waited
during the remainder of that month, for the arrival of a caravan, going
from Agra to Surat, by which I might transmit my papers in safety. The
caravan departed from Agimere at midnight of the 30th November: and on
the 1st December I went six cosses to Ramsor, where the king had left
the naked bodies of an hundred men, put to death for robbery. The 2d I
travelled seven c. I rested the 3d, because of rain. The 4th I went five
c. and this day I overtook a camel, laden with 300 heads, sent from
Candahar to the king, the people to whom these heads had belonged having
been in rebellion. Travelling five c. on the 5th, and four c. on the
6th, I that day overtook the king at a walled town called Todah, in
the best and most populous country I had seen in India since I landed.
The district was quite level, having a fertile soil, abounding in corn,
cotton, and cattle, and the villages were so numerous and near together,
as hardly to exceed a coss from each other in any direction. This town
was the best built of any I had seen in India, many of the houses being
two stories high, and most of them good enough for decent shop-keepers,
all covered with tiles. It had been the residence of a Rajput rajah,
before the conquests of Akbar Shah, and stood at the foot of a great and
strong rock, about which were many excellent works of hewn stone, well
cut, with many tanks, arched over with well-turned vaults, and large and
deep descents to them. Near it was a beautiful grove, two miles long and
a quarter of a mile broad, all planted with mangoes, tamarinds, and
other fruit-trees, divided by shady walks, and interspersed with little
temples, and idol altars, with many fountains, wells, and summer-houses
of carved stone curiously arched, so that I must confess a poor banished
Englishman might have been content to dwell here. But this observation
may serve universally for the whole of this country, that ruin and
devastation operates every where; for, since the property of all has
become vested in the king, no person takes care of any thing, so that in
every place the spoil and devastations of war appear, and no where is
any thing repaired.
On the 7th the king only removed from one side of Todah to the other.
The 8th I was at the guzalcan, but found the king so nearly drunk, that
he became entirely so in half an hour, so that I could not have any
business with him. The 9th I took a view of the royal leskar, or camp,
which is one of the greatest wonders I had ever seen, and chiefly as I
saw it finished and set up in less than four hours, all except the tents
of some of the great men, who have double suits.
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